A new report from Analysys paints a positive picture for the future of mobile e-mail.
Mobile e-mail, which typically also includes mobile access to calendars and contact information, will be the key driver of growth in mobile data services for businesses over the next five years, according to a new report from advisory group Analysys.
In its new report, Mobile Data Solutions for Businesses: maximising revenue and take-up, Analysys Research predicts that around 40% of people with a business mobile phone (21 million Europeans) will use mobile e-mail in 2008, compared to less than 1% today. Over the same period, the annual mobile service revenue generated by email will increase from 49 million EUR in 2003 to 2.9 billion EUR in 2008.
The report outlines the variety of mobile e-mail solutions being offered, from Microsoft's decision to include mobility functions in Exchange Server 2003, to Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, to the NokiaOne hosted solution, which caters for a broad range of existing phones and PDAs. However, it emphasises that with e-mail's applicability to a broad range of companies with different needs, no one type of solution is likely to dominate.
Mobile access to company intranets and to specialist applications such as sales-force automation (SFA) are also identified by the report as key areas for growth.
Analysys Research expects Western European businesses to be spending 8.1 billion EUR across all mobile data services by 2008, up from 1.8 billion EUR in 2003, and for small and medium-sized businesses to account for 78% of that spend.
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